Has anyone had any success storing Wii ISO files on a server, and playing them through dolphin emulator that has been installed on the local machine. This would be my ideal setup because it would reduce file sizes for backups.

You have to mount the folder of the share, so you can access it eg. from the windows explorer (if you're using windows, //machinename/folder), and then either put the path/address of the folder to the gamelist or open the ISO directly.

I have no idea. I've never touched homegroups. Probably fine? But I don't know how Windows handles the pathing for that.

Here's how I do it.

On the server, I set up the SMB/CIFs share. On windows, this can be done through Properties > Sharing on the folder, on Linux, this is done through Samba. After testing that I can connect to it on the Windows client, I open up Explorer, right click on "This PC" or whatever your version of Windows calls it, and click "Map network drive". Add your remote share through that, then browse to that folder in dolphin.

I'm pretty sure Homegroup shares through SMB so I'm thinking I'll be alright. Once I get past the sharing part of it, I'm guessing I'll have to runs some cables but i'll at least get sharing up, and report back.